DREAMPLAY: ASIAN BOYS VOL. 1

About the Show

Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 is a campy, fabulous extravaganza charting the journey of a goddess, Agnes, after she descends to earth. Armed with fantastic powers, she is on a heroic mission: ‘to save gay men from themselves’.

And thus Agnes lands in Singapore, where a mysterious guide called ‘Boy’ offers to show her around. They travel through time, meeting with horny, sweaty rickshaw coolies, love-doomed resistance fighters during the Japanese Occupation, and the lonely drifters of a virtual landscape known in the ’90s as the ‘Internet Relay Chat’.

Blending the divine with the profane, by turns harrowing and hilarious, Dreamplay is a fabulous tour through Singapore’s history, throwing light and fairy dust at the little-known beginnings of an alternative community on the island. Written unapologetically at the tentative turn of the millennium, it has rightly earned its place as one of the pioneering works in Singaporean queer theatre.

Rating: R18 (Homosexual Theme)

Production History:

Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 is the first installment of Alfian Sa’at’s Asian Boys Trilogy. Written when the playwright was 23 years old, it premiered at the Necessary Stage Black Box and ran for three weeks.

Subsequently, excerpts of the play were read as part of the Singapore Season in London in 2005, with drag queen standup extraordinaire Kumar playing the lead role of Agnes.

Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 was nominated for Best Script at the Life! Theatre Awards in 2001. The cast won Best Ensemble at the same awards.

In directing this revival, Ivan Heng completes his interpretation of the Asian Boys Trilogy, after having helmed both Landmarks: Asian Boys Vol. 2 (2004) and also Happy Endings: Asian Boys Vol. 3 (2007). Jo Kukathas stars in the lead role of Agnes, joined by actors from earlier productions of Asian Boys Vol. 1 (Peter Sau), Vol. 2 (Tan Shou Chen) and Vol. 3 (Koey Foo), along with Rodney Oliveiro and Caleb Goh.

CAST

Reviews

"The work comes with raucous gags and easy laughs, and Alfian’s early writing is gilded with a wide-eyed hopefulness and a raw lyricism that mixes gleeful camp and brash, in-your-face humour…"

SPH The Straits Times Life!

"Wild and witty, fractious and funny, Dreamplay: Asian Boys Vol. 1 is easily one of the most entertaining and satisfying productions of the year."

The Business Times

"This play is campy and physically comedic, and has enough laughs and fun for all."

blogcritics.org

"Dreamplay is captivatingly humorous in its explicit vulgarity, witty wordplay, blatant allusions and playful meta-theatricality; two hours of excitement and laughter, many more after, of adoration and impression."

poachedmag.com

Awards

The Straits Times Life! Theatre Awards 2014 NOMINATIONS

Best Director - Ivan Heng

Best Lighting Design - Mac Chan

Best Ensemble

Gallery

Video

About W!LD RICE

Founded in 2000 by our Founding Artistic Director, Ivan Heng, W!LD RICE is one of Singapore’s leading professional theatre companies. Our mission is to provide a forum for the shared experience of theatre; celebrating our diversity, reflecting on the problems and possibilities of our times, and presenting productions that inspire, challenge and entertain. W!LD RICE is a not-for-profit Singapore Registered Charity, (Institution of a Public Character No. 000122). It is a recipient of the National Arts Council's Major Grant.